1. Field of the Invention
The present invention regards a device comprising a protective, totally insulating wrapping allowing the rapid aiding of individuals suffering from difficulty in breathing, movement and communication, because of a situation of environmental risk, in the form of toxic and contaminating agents, such as fumes, acid vapours, dusts, aerosols, etc., the whole in an environment in any case impossible to enter under normal breathing conditions, while awaiting transfer to adequate sanitary structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Acute respiratory pathology has taken on and is taking on an ever-increasing importance in relationship to modern industrial development with the progressive extension of its ever-growing pollution by: aerosols, gases, radioactive substances, fumes, vapours, etc.
The risk of becoming a victim to accidents is therefore in continuous increase, and this imposes the necessity and also the opportunity of being able to give the victims of such accidents, on their work-sites and not only there, the most rapid and efficient aid, in the case of poisoning, intoxication, asphyxia and/or in other conditions of serious emergency.
This necessity can be found in all those situations in which a detrimental modification of the characteristics of the air takes place due to a percentage variation of the component parts of breathable air, through the active intervention of substances which are directly detrimental to the breathing apparatus, through the presence of damaging agents which act on the organism with particular biological mechanisms.
The term "acute respiratory insufficiency" defines a condition in which a malfunction of the respiratory apparatus compromises the oxygenation.
With a mortality rate of 20%, it remains one of the most serious pathologies found in the field of emergency medicine. The principle functions of the respiratory apparatus are the elimination of CO.sub.2 and the passage of O.sub.2 from the alveolar area to the lung capillary bed and therefore respiratory insufficiency can be described as the pathological condition resulting from an inadequate oxygenation and from an insufficient ventilation or from both these conditions.
Among the problems connected to the activity of emergency aid and first aid, in which it is necessary to act rapidly in order to avoid the respiratory apparatus of individuals suffering from shock being exposed for an intolerable length of time to a heavily toxic or in any case noxious environment, or for the aid of subjects suffering from burns, devices are presently known which presuppose that the victim himself be able to make full use of the emergency apparatus, or that there be a continuous and direct assistance by rescuers. The apparatuses which can be used, and which are at present on the market, in the light of present knowledge and as results from accurate bibliographic investigations, do not make totally and simultaneously possible the functional, potentials and technical characteristics which can be assumed as:
total isolation of the victim from the environment at risk;
automation of function;
possibility of rapid multiple rescue;
filtering, ventilation and pressurization system;
air conditioning;
supply of oxygen.
In fact, the individual protective apparatuses known, of which mention has been made hereinbefore, can be divided into two main categories: those protecting the respiratory tracts alone and those protecting the whole body. The first category includes both the filter systems and the closed circuit systems, whereas the second category includes, generally, only filtering or ventilating devices. The operational difficulties and the limits of said apparatuses can be seen in all those cases in which it is necessary to give emergency aid to a number of individuals (not self-sufficient) within the same environment in which oxygen is scarce or in any case in the presence of fumes, vapours, toxic pollution and/or radioactivity, etc.. For example, self-contained breathing units and externally fed masks require above all, operative self-sufficiency and direct experience of use; protective suits (filtered or ventilated), along with direct experience, require a time and accuracy to be put on which is unthinkable in the cases mentioned above; finally the existing protective wrappings, above all for military use, show a simple filter system activated by the victim himself.
Also known are mobile units provided with feeding systems for "medical" air, which can house victims during their transportation to the hospital, but the necessity of creating a controlled atmosphere corresponding to the large internal volume of said means renders the technical problem hard to resolve, given the limited space available.
To this can be added that the volume of the controlled atmosphere must be immune from fresh external contamination, which imposes the necessity of obtaining two fundamental specifications:
a) sealing of the controlled environment;
b) internal over pressurization against recontamination.
Said specifications are hard to provide for the inside of a normal mobile unit and therefore require the obligatory use of special mobile units which, given their high cost, will always represent a limited fraction of those normally in existance or available.
Thus, there is an ever greater demand and indispensible request, by the services of assistance and emergency, environmental intervention, rescue, etc., for the availability of a type of protective portable device in which the injured person can remain, in an environment having a controlled atmosphere, in the hypothesis that the atmosphere of the external environment in which the injury was sustained be contaminated by toxic or harmful substances, both gaseous or in the form of aerosols or dusts.
Medical experience in fact teaches that a great percentage of physical injuries can worsen if the lungs of the victim are not rapidly removed from any noxious agent present in the environment.